After close liaison with the St Albans Community Centre Rebuild Working Party, the Papanui-Innes Community Board has approved the concept design for the new centre and Christchurch City Council staff are now working with the Board and the working party on the detailed design.

Papanui-Innes Community Board Chair Ali Jones said the St Albans community was eager to have a new permanent community centre that would act as a hub for community activities.

“We are very grateful for the Lions providing the transitional building, however, we need permanence six years on from the quakes and this will provide that," Ms Jones said.

The new centre would be significantly bigger than the existing temporary centre and have several spaces for people to use, including a hall for big community gatherings.

"Having community representative, elected members and Council officers on the working party has meant for a really effective and successful progression of this project," Ms Jones said. "We intend to use the same process on the Shirley Community Centre project as well."

The new centre will cover about 530 square metres and include a large hall with a sprung floor, a recreation room, two small meeting rooms, a multi-media room, an office, kitchen and toilets.

“We want to provide a warm and inviting place that offers a range of social, educational, cultural and recreational facilities and encourages people to get involved in events and activities," said Christchurch City Council Project Manager Kristine Bouw.

“We want to give St Albans residents a modern, efficient and functional centre which they’ll be proud to have as their community hub."

Ms Bouw said tenders for construction of the centre would be sought once the detailed design work was completed in the next few months.